Dec 09
by Admin in Rajasthan 0 comments tags: Alwan, art, Avian, Bangalore, Bird, birds, Digitalfrescos, Nikkor, Nikkor 500, Nikon, Nikon D500, redshank, spotted redshank

Spotted redshank non breeding plummage, Jaipur

The Spotted Redshank is a wary, noisy wader, larger and more elegant than the Common Redshank. It is often named “Sentinel of the Marshes” as it flies off while yelling a warning to other birds. The Spotted Redshank has beautiful sooty-black breeding plumage and long, needle-like bill. It is known for its spectacular “sky dance” at the beginning of the breeding season. The females often leave the breeding grounds up to a week before the eggs hatch, or desert their mates with brood at an early stage. The males rear the young alone, and migrate with the juveniles after the nesting period. The Spotted Redshank is migratory. It breeds in the northernmost regions of Eurasia, and moves S to spend the winter as far as equatorial Africa, India and SE Asia. It is threatened by habitat loss in the wintering areas and on migration. The female is slightly larger than male, with usually paler plumage, showing white tips to crown feathers and more white-edged feathers on the underparts. The non-breeding adult has pale brownish-grey upperparts from forehead to mantle and scapulars (the latter with narrow fringes on the larger scapulars). Wing-coverts and tertials are spotted and notched whitish. The white […]
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Dec 09
by Admin in Rajasthan 0 comments tags: Alwan, art, Avian, Bangalore, Bird, birds, Digitalfrescos, kingfisher, lesser pied, lesser pied kingfisher, Nikkor, Nikkor 500, Nikon, Nikon D500, Pied, pied kingfisher

Lesser pied kingfisher in flight, Jaipur

Not only is the pied kingfisher the largest bird capable of a true hover in still air, it is also the only kingfisher with all black and white plumage. This distinctive bird has white-spotted, black upperparts and white underparts, with a broad band of black streaks on the upper-breast and a narrow black bar below. There is a prominent white eyebrow and a black eyeband that stretches to the back of the neck, as well as a white throat and collar and a white patch on the wing-coverts. The rump is barred black and white, the iris is brown and the weak, fleshy, feet and legs are black. The male pied kingfisher as in this image is distinguished from the female by the presence of two full breast bands, with the female having just a single incomplete band. A proficient predator of fish, the pied kingfisher forages from a perch or while hovering, flying low over the water before rising up to ten metres, holding a brief hover, and then plunging into the water and seizing its target in its bill. Because of the pied kingfisher’s unrivalled ability to hover, it does not always require extensive woodland around its habitat […]
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Dec 09
by Admin in Rajasthan 0 comments tags: Alwan, art, Avian, Bangalore, Bird, birds, Digitalfrescos, kingfisher, lesser pied, lesser pied kingfisher, Nikkor, Nikkor 500, Nikon, Nikon D500, Pied, pied kingfisher

Lesser pied kingfisher male portrait, Jaipur

Not only is the pied kingfisher the largest bird capable of a true hover in still air, it is also the only kingfisher with all black and white plumage. This distinctive bird has white-spotted, black upperparts and white underparts, with a broad band of black streaks on the upper-breast and a narrow black bar below. There is a prominent white eyebrow and a black eyeband that stretches to the back of the neck, as well as a white throat and collar and a white patch on the wing-coverts. The rump is barred black and white, the iris is brown and the weak, fleshy, feet and legs are black. The male pied kingfisher as in this image is distinguished from the female by the presence of two full breast bands, with the female having just a single incomplete band. A proficient predator of fish, the pied kingfisher forages from a perch or while hovering, flying low over the water before rising up to ten metres, holding a brief hover, and then plunging into the water and seizing its target in its bill. Because of the pied kingfisher’s unrivalled ability to hover, it does not always require extensive woodland around its habitat […]
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Nov 04
by Admin in Rajasthan 0 comments tags: Alwan, art, Avian, Bangalore, Bird, birds, Digitalfrescos, Falcon, laggar falcon, Nikkor, Nikkor 500, Nikon, Nikon D500

Laggar falcon adult male take off, DNP

The laggar falcon is a mid-sized bird of prey which occurs in the Indian subcontinent. It resembles the lanner falcon but is darker overall, and has blackish “trousers” (tibiotarsus feathers). Fledglings have an almost entirely dark underside, and first-year subadult birds still retain much dark on the belly. This falcon mostly feeds on birds, including doves and gamebirds, but principally passerines; also wide variety of small mammals, including bats; reptiles. Laggar Falcons used to be the most common falcons in the region, but numbers have declined markedly in recent times and today it is probably nowhere a common species anymore. The main threats are the intensification of pesticide use in the region and use as a decoy to trap large falcons.It is classified as Near Threatened by IUCN.
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Nov 04
by Admin in Rajasthan 0 comments tags: Alwan, art, Avian, Bangalore, Bird, birds, Digitalfrescos, Falcon, laggar falcon, Nikkor, Nikkor 500, Nikon, Nikon D500

Laggar falcon pair with kill on the fence, DNP

The laggar falcon is a mid-sized bird of prey which occurs in the Indian subcontinent. It resembles the lanner falcon but is darker overall, and has blackish “trousers” (tibiotarsus feathers). Fledglings have an almost entirely dark underside, and first-year subadult birds still retain much dark on the belly. This falcon mostly feeds on birds, including doves and gamebirds, but principally passerines; also wide variety of small mammals, including bats; reptiles. Laggar Falcons used to be the most common falcons in the region, but numbers have declined markedly in recent times and today it is probably nowhere a common species anymore. The main threats are the intensification of pesticide use in the region and use as a decoy to trap large falcons.It is classified as Near Threatened by IUCN.
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